1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for an electronic settlement using a keyboard having multiple card identification and charging functions, and more particularly to a system and a method for an electronic settlement using a keyboard having multiple card identification and charging functions wherein an electronic settlement and a card-charging can be performed under an interlock with electronic cash management servers, financial settlement institute servers, and/or electronic commerce servers on the internet by using a keyboard and a PC (Personal Computer) coupled with the keyboard, which keyboard being able to identify conventional magnetic cards and read/write smart cards and RF (Radio Frequency) cards.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As generally known in the art, a smart card (also referred to as an IC card) or an RF card has been commercialized in accordance with the introduction of an on-line electronic settlement system and in order to solve the security problems of magnetic cards, which are generally used as credit cards, caused by the drain of personal information and illegal copy.
When the smart card or the RF card is to be used in a personal computer system, a connection is needed between the user's computer and the read/write device of the card. In conventional computer systems, the input/output port of the computer's main body and the read/write device of the card have been connected through a cable. However, such a connection has a problem from an aesthetic point of view, because it adds to the complexity of wirings connecting other peripheral devices (e.g., mouse, speaker, monitor) to the main body. In addition, there was a difficulty in installation because of a limitation to the length of the cable.
A keyboard-coupled chip card read/write device has been proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems. The device comprises a separate RAM in its keyboard circuit for reading and storing the chip card's data, a control unit interlocked with the RAM for conversion into a key scan code, and a separate driving means interlocked with the control unit for turning a switching means ON to transmit the converted code to the computer. The control unit requires an additional microprocessor for data operation/control and a RAM for data storage, thereby increasing the complexity of the circuit configuration. Furthermore, the ROM provided in the microprocessor requires an additional control program, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost.
In addition, the keyboard-coupled chip card read/write device cannot be applied to various types of card settlement systems used in the electronic commerce on the internet because it can read/write smart cards only.